"A community’s physical form, rather than its land uses, is its most intrinsic and enduring characteristic." [Katz, EPA] This blog focuses on place and placemaking and all that makes it work--historic preservation, urban design, transportation, asset-based community development, arts & cultural development, commercial district revitalization, tourism & destination development, and quality of life advocacy--along with doses of civic engagement and good governance watchdogging.

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

Urban outmigration and the deaccessioning of civic infrastructure: Chicago

As residents move out of communities to new communities and population shrinks, the amount of civic infrastructure-schools and other public buildings built by the local government to serve the population, as well as religious facilities serving neighborhoods and communities--churches and schools in particular, present in a community is greater than the need.

As buildings and programs are closed, neighborhoods can be further destabilized. And empty properties contribute to further disinvestment.

As the Chicago Public Schools system prepares to shutter more schools, a study released Monday concluded that Chicago is already awash in vacant school property for sale, with 24 shuttered CPS sites on the market plus about as many old Catholic schools for sale or lease.Most of Chicago’s vacant schools have been so for more than 10 years, and the longer schools are empty, the harder it is to sell them, according to the report released by the Pew Charitable Trust ahead of massive school actions expected soon in several major American cities.“The challenge of finding new uses for old buildings is daunting, and the downside of letting them sit idle can be significant,” according to “Shuttered Public Schools: The Struggle to Bring Old Buildings New Life.”Philadelphia is expected to close 37 schools by year’s end; Washington, D.C., wants to close more than a dozen.

In shrinking communities though, other neighborhood stabilization initiatives need to be adopted as well, focused on attracting additional residents. Some program initiatives that serve as good models are:

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About Me

I am an urban/commercial district revitalization and transportation/mobility advocate and consultant and a principal in BicyclePASS, a bicycle facilities systems integration firm, based in Washington, DC. Urban economic competitiveness is dependent on efficient transit and mixed use, compact places. Therefore, I end up writing mostly about mobility and urban design. While I am based in and write about Washington, DC issues, I try to write so that "universal lessons" are evident in the entries.